As social media has become the go-to online forum for interpersonal communications, you could forgive savvy entrepreneurs for thinking email marketing is a thing of the past. But, that’s just not so. In fact, as sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram have exploded in popularity, they have also bogged us down with notifications, tweets, requests, likes, and shares. Email, however, offers a steady, predictable presence that makes it a reliable platform for business communications. As such, utilizing email for marketing purposes is as important as ever. This guide to successful email marketing campaign will offer you all the do’s, don’ts, and pearls of wisdom to get the most out of your campaign.

Building a Mail-out List

Before you can begin email marking, you need to build a mail-out list. There are many approaches you can take, from free give-aways and contests to providing product information, newsletters, or other valuable services to potential customers. Today’s online users are becoming wary of sharing their email addresses, so you need to have a compelling reason to ask for it. Your potential customers want to know why they should give you an email address and they also want to be confident they won’t receive spam emails. Offering discounts, VIP access to new products, relevant offers and other perks are just a few ways you can start building an email list for your marketing campaign.

Make the Safelist

The safelist or whitelist is an email service providers’ method of distinguishing spam from quality emails. For the most part, getting onto a user’s safelist or whitelist requires that your email address is in their address book, so make sure that your marketing emails provide instructions for users to add you to their contacts list, whitelist, or safelist.

Walk the Walk

Your email marketing campaign should include valuable information, a consistent message, and good follow-up. What do we mean by follow-up? Basically, you need to practice what you preach – so, you need to follow-up on whatever you offer in your email campaign. In other words, don’t make promises you can’t keep.

Timing is Everything

First of all, don’t get spammy with your email campaign; multiple daily messages will just clog a user’s inbox, and you’ll end up getting blocked. But, you also need to make your offers and emails relevant to your users. Ask yourself if you’re making valuable offers or providing useful information.

Analytics

Finally, you need to make sure you keep on top of the quality of your marketing campaign. In today’s media-rich environment, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all FOREVER marketing campaign. Review the analytics of your email marketing campaign to make sure you’re getting a good return on your investment.